Back then, it was bank owned after being on the market before that as a short sale.

It also was a 2-bedroom with a family room and now it is simply a 3-bedroom. (Was it smart to make it a 3-bedroom?)

At 2800 square feet (it was 2400 square feet in the previous listing), some of you who saw it said it needed to be totally gutted and the chatter revolved around how much it would cost to fix it up and whether or not it could be flipped.

Some thought it would cost a couple of hundred thousand to fix up properly. Others thought $50,000 could do the trick. Helmethofer wondered if a renovator could add a lot of can lights to bring in extra light.

Listed by the bank at $399,000 it sold in March 2013 for $467,000.

It has come back on the market with a new kitchen, baths, and new can lights 3 months later for $1.1 million.

The kitchen now has dark cabinets and some stainless steel appliances. The listing calls it a “chef’s kitchen.”

It didn’t have a parking space before and it appears to still not have parking.

The unit does have central air and in-unit washer/dryer.

Will this get the premium?

Or are Chicago housing prices starting to bubble over in some neighborhoods?

Rick Levin at Rick Levin & Associates has the listing (also has an interest in the property). See the new pictures here.

25 Responses to “3-Bedroom Duplex Is Back: From $467,000 to $1.1 Million in Just 3 Months in the Gold Coast: 39 E. Schiller”

If this place sells for anything approaching the ask price, it will be proof that the bubble has been blown up again. It’s difficult to believe that $30,000 or so worth of “improvements” could add this much value this quickly.

Are people really this stupid? Especially people who qualify to buy $1M houses Are memories of the bust really that short? Only 5 years ago, the Gold Coast was studded with expensive foreclosures. The credit debacle of the 00s affected almost every community in the country, and the losses from upper bracket properties that cratered in value, were catastrophic, just as they were in lower-priced properties. And, while foreclosures and losses in $200K houses were far more numerous, obviously, the loss on one upper-bracket property equaled that of 10 cheap homes rolled together.

Or is it just that lenders have learned that they can count on our political leaders to allocate as much money as necessary to support them when loans by the millions go bad. Instead of punishing bad behavior for the past 5 years, we’ve rewarded it. Nobody was punished adequately for their part in the lunacy of the last decade either as a lender or borrower.

$30k in improvements? Yes, the list is a joke for this place, especially given the lack of parking. But take a look at similar sq footage in the immediate vicinity of this place, and you’ll see that something in the highish six fig’s isn’t out of line, bubble redux or not. (I know you have an affinity for vintage, Laura, which I share, so I understand your harsh reception of this unit. But for folks looking for 3 beds, with sq footage well over 2,000, east of Clark and between Goethe and North (give or take), for under $1m, sacrifices need to be made.)

Well, they made a lot of money when they bought this upfront for 467k. Good job. I don’t know the prices in the area, but the present list price seems a bit aggressive. Looks they like they had a pretty nice place to work with, and then put in new kitchen, baths, removed wallpaper, … Probably dropped a chunk of change on the tub. I think the kitchen is a giant brown blob and they could have made much better choices as opposed to brown everything, ugh. Nonetheless, they will make a bunch of money. Once again, there’s a big gap between purchase price and list, which far exceeds what they put into it. I think they’re a bit optimistic.

The no parking really hurts its value as well as the lack of natural light (which isn’t uncommon in this neighborhood).

Overall the place is hugely improved, and are you fucking kidding me? 30k in improvements? LOL try 150k MINIMUM that would be if this person did everything themselves which they didn’t since it was a 3 month renovation…

The place needed pretty much new everything but the floors but they redid the floors in the bathrooms and kitchen as well, I’m sure just refinishing the hardwood part of the floors was probably 5k, let alone a complete kitchen remodel, with high end cabinets and appliances, probably 50k minimum

Those large marble tiles around the fireplace aren’t cheap either

10k+ a bathroom, new blinds for every window was probably another 5k… shit adds up

I don’t think you even bothered to look at the previous pictures, I mean seriously the place is a bit overpriced but to say that there was 30k of work done only is totally ignorant.

Quality laquer cabinets, mosaiic tiles, heck any high end materials, that justify the 7 figure asking price usually have a lead time of 10 weeks of so…unless you are shooting an HGTV show. 1M asking price for that space in the GC isn’t the issue, my issue is this reno cost 150k tops and they are looking to make a killing. Kudos to the flippers if someone buys this anywhere near ask.

Plenty of people have paid a steep price for the mortgage meltdown. People who saved and put 10-20% down but happened to buy a condo at the highs of 06 were screwed no matter what. Its the dead beats who stopped paying their mortgage or treated their homes like an atm that got off

The original purchase price was not market that was what it sold for to cash buyer of a distressed ugly unit. They cleaned it up and probably spent 150K – 200K so are probably into this thing for 750K – 800 L I think they get 950K fairly quickly. So they make 150-200 for taking the risk. Not bad

Why are people on this site so jealous when investors take risk in order to make a profit (or the preferred term used here, “killing”)? If it was that easy then everyone would do it, but it takes cash, know-how, and willingness to take risk.

“Why are people on this site so jealous when investors take risk in order to make a profit (or the preferred term used here, “killing”)? If it was that easy then everyone would do it, but it takes cash, know-how, and willingness to take risk.”

I am not saying that this is a seven figure property, however this flipper had the ability to buy it and do a first class job rehabbing it. ( I don’t care if its not to my taste or yours.) At $600k, they know they aren’t in for a loss, so feel out the market and see what they can do. I don’t think anyone here thinks the market is going down right now. With fewer properties on the market for them to move on to, why rush to find an overnight buyer.

Ha! If you can name a single contractor in the world that can do that for 30k PLEASE let me know. In fact anything close to that for 2/3rd the square footage for 60k Let me know! I’ve been quoted by multiple contractors for my place for a single bathroom reno alone ~ 20k…

There are many irritating things about this site, but one of the most irritating things is that nearly every commenter, on every property, focuses on how much the current price differs from the last sale price. The market value of this property today is either $1.1 million or it isn’t. The current market value of the property has NOTHING to do with what the seller paid for it. If I buy a beat up ’57 chevy for $500 and put $10K worth of work into it, the market value of that car is not necessarily $10,500. It may be much higher or much lower. The same is true for real estate. I think this property is moderately overpriced (maybe 10-15% overpriced) at $1.1 million, but my conclusion is not based on the fact that the seller paid X for the property, paid Y in improvements, and the sale price is more than X plus Y.

While I’m at it, I’ll note that the other extremely irritating thing about this site is the negativity of the posts. For some posters, every property is crap and every property is way overpriced. (The one huge positive: Sabrina picks good properties to discuss and jumps in as the voice of reason when the blowhards’ ignorance becomes overwhelming. Thanks for taking the time to run the site.)